What is the front of a word, and why?

Today i was in an argument with a co-worker, he said, put "x" word in front of "y", the result he was expecting was "xy", but the way I see it, is "yx", and im probably going to get downvoted, but here is my explanation, if the word "body" was a body, B would be the back and Y would be the front because we read from left to right, I just can wrap my head around it, the back normally tends to the left and the front tends to the right in a "x axis"...since we are moving to the front, then you are adding it to the right side of a word... if you have nothing productive to answer just dont, not interested in any sarcasm or jokes, thanks all